SAN FRANCISCO, November 21, (THEWILL) – The Federal High Court in Lagos Thursday ordered the permanent forfeiture of N280, 555,010.65 held in the bank accounts of Invictus Oil and Gas Limited and Invictus Investment Limited.

Justice Rilwan Aikawa made the forfeiture order following a motion by the

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission after the court was informed the court that firms are owned by Obinwanne Okeke, “a strong leader of a cyber crime syndicate that specialised in business e-mail compromise.”

Obinwanne, popularly known as Invictus Obi, is being prosecuted in the United States following his arrest by the FBI for cyber fraud.

Justice Aikawa had, on October 9, ordered the temporary forfeiture of the money.

The judge ruled, “I have seen the application seeking the final forfeiture of the sum of N280.5m warehoused in the two bank accounts, which was reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.

“I am satisfied that the requirements enumerated under Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud and other related Offences Act have been met by the applicant in this suit; consequently, this application is hereby granted as prayed, as it remains unchallenged.

“The sum of N280.5m found in the bank account of Invictus Investment Limited, who is the second respondent in this suit, is hereby forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”